Originally Posted By ngc1300:
The power of lasers was never set by law and left up to interpretation by the FDA. Now that's dead, when will companies start selling us plebs full power lasers?
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It's not dead. Chevron being overturned means that it's possible to challenge if the government is overreaching in court.
If the FDA is given power by law to regulate lasers (spoiler alert, they are) for public safety or whatever, prior Chevron being overturned, basically whatever the FDA said was gospel. If it said it needed a regulation, it was considered to true that the regulation was needed. It's a valid regulation that's not overstepping because - well they said so.
Now, you can challenge in the court whether a regulation or enforcement is actually necessary, or if the government is overstepping. Is what the government doing within the purpose and scope of the laws that give them power? Now the courts decide, not the agency in question.
As a simplified example, If the FDA is empowered to protect the public harmful and unnecessary emissions from electronic devices, you could now take them to court to argue a full power IR laser is either not harmful, or not unnecessary. If it's not one of those two, the FDA would theoretically lose some or even all of their regulatory power over it. If both are true, then their regulations probably will hold.
It's all going to come down to the strength of language the law has given the FDA. The stronger the language, purpose and scope is spelled out in the act giving the FDA power over lasers, the less likely you would be able to overturn it in court. It doesn't need to actually specify a specific MW limit in the law itself for the FDA to have regulatory authority even in a post Chevron world.